Blackwood: Act One
Developer: AttritoM7 Productions
Publishers: IZilla Games, AttritoM7 Productions
Platforms: Steam (Windows), with plans for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S at an undetermined date.
Price: Usually $25, with a 10 percent discount until September 23. Includes access to acts two and three, which should both arrive in 2027
The debut of Blackwood snuck up on me amid an extremely busy spell for game releases. Still, I managed to play a chunk of the action-life sim hybrid this week.
This game has an irresistible setup. It’s 2012 and by day, you run a DVD store. At night, you become an ersatz John Wick. The first act, with around six hours of playtime, is out now and two more will follow next year.
This game caught my eye when a trailer popped up last October. I thought the gun fu looked neat and the DVD store used to be my happy place, so I was into that aspect too. It clearly wears its influences on its sleeve, not least because you can dive toward the ground to trigger Max Payne-style Bullet Time and slow down the action for a moment. I also dig that the game drops you into an action sequence to help you get to grips with combat right off the bat.
However, Blackwood is rough as things stand. Hand-to-hand combat is clunky, the audio mix is often out of whack and the car handling is atrocious. The action is just not as fluid as it ought to be for a game like this either. For instance, it takes far too long to pick up a weapon, which is tough when you’re out of ammo. On top of that, the DVD store aspect can’t really hold a candle to Retro Rewind.
It’s a shame because there’s real potential here. There are some neat ideas (like weapon customization and trying to balance the protagonist’s double life) and cool takedown moments in there. I wonder if taking an early access approach rather than an episodic one would have been a wiser strategy. A buggy launch is more forgivable for an early access title.
At least the developers are responding to feedback quickly. They released a day-one patch that resolved a few issues. AttritoM7 plans to make further changes before releasing Act Two. Among other things, they’re adding an autosave function, so you won’t have to wait until you sleep to save your progress. More side missions are on the way too. I hope the studio can polish things up in the coming months, as I’d like to come back to this when it’s in better shape.
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